Machine for printing tobacco-tags.



PATEN'IED JULY 26, 1904.

W. E. MARTIN.

MACHINE FOR PRINTING TOBACCO TAGS.

APPLIUATION FILED AUG.19, 1903.

NO MODEL.

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UNITED STATES Patented July 26, 1904.

ATENT FFICE.

IVHIILEY E. MARTIN, OF IVINSTON SALEM, NORTH CAROLINA, ASSIGNOR OF ONE-FIFTH TO GEORGE MASLIN DAVIS, OF \VINSTON SALEM, NORTH CAROLINA.

MACHINE FOR PRINTING TOBACCO-TAGS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 766,152, dated July 26, 1904.

(No model.)

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, IVHITLEY E. MARTIN, a citizen of the United States, residing at \Yinston Salem, in the county of Forsyth and State of North Carolina, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Apparatus for Printing Tag-Strips, of which the following is a specification.

In another application for Letters Patent of the United States filed by me on August 19, 1903, Serial No. 170, 085, I haveshown a machine for making tin tags and automatically attaching them to plugs of tobacco. In that machine the tags are cut from a strip or ribbon of indefinite length and are automatically applied to plugs of tobacco. It is important that the strip or ribbon should be fed with great accuracy in order that the proper design or inscription should appear on each tag. In my application for patent, Serial No.170,086, filed August 19, 1903,I have described an apparatus in which tag-blanks are formed in a continuous strip or ribbon by rolling round wire into ribbon form, tinning it, forming it with a longitudinal series of perforations, and winding up the tinned perforated strip or ribbon on a reel.

According to the present invention I design to take the perforated strip or ribbon from the reel on which it is wound in the mechanism for forming and perforating the ribbon and pass it through printing mechanism, which applies the inscriptions or designs on the strip in such manner that they shall have such a relation to the perforations that when the printed strip is transferred to the machine for cutting and applying the tags the tagblanks may be properly fed, so that when the tags are cut out they shall each be complete in form and design.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure 1 shows diagrammatically an elevation of so much of the apparatus which I employ as is necessary to illustrate the subject-matter herein claimed. Fig. 2 is a plan View of a perforated tag-strip upon which the designs or inscriptions are printed.

A perforated tag-strip (4 passes from a reel A between a sprocket-wheel B and a printingcylinder O. The teeth of the sprocket-wheel are so arranged that they properly engage the perforations in the strip so as to feed the strip forward uniformly in such manner that the impressions may be spaced at regular intervals. Ink is fed to the printing-cylinder from the receptacle D by means of inking-rollers (I, and the cylinder is provided with figures, letters, or any other devices to be impressed upon the tags. Another printing-cylinder,O, and sprocket-wheel, B, may be employed where it is desired to apply different colors to the tag-strip, ink being supplied to the cylinder C from the receptacle I) by means of rollers (Z. The mechanism may be duplicated any number of times in order to print a succession of colors.

Preferably the printed tag-strip is passed through a heater E to dry the printing, and it is thence received by a take-up reel E. This reel F may be transferred to the machine which cuts out the tags and applies them to the tobacco.

By the apparatus shown a strip or ribbon of indefinite length may be taken from a reel, passed through printing mechanism, and wound upon another reel,which may be transferred to the tag cuttingand applying machine, and while passing from reel to reel the strip receives a series of designs or inscriptions which by reason of the perforations in the strips and the corresponding sprocket-wheels are spaced uniformly, so that when the strip is cut complete uniform tags are made and applied.

It will be understood that the reel A is wound with a thin strip of metal having a longitudinal series of perforations on each longitudinal edge and that the sprocket-wheels have two circular series of spurs which engage these perforations. The printing-cylinder applies the design or inscription in the central portion of the strip between the perforations, and the perforated and printed strip is wound up upon the take-up reel E, which may be actuated in any suitable way. By employing two longitudinal series of perforations I am enabled to coiled a strip of metal having a longitudinal series of perforations on each longitudinal edge of the stripand which are uniformly spaced, a sprocket-wheel having spurs spaced to correspond with the perforations in the strip and which constitutes the platen for the printing mechanism, a printing-cylind er above the sprocket-wheel which prints designs or inscriptions on the strip between the perforations as the strip is fed between the cylinder and the wheel, a take-up reel which receives the printed perforated strip and a heater interposed between the take-up reel and the printing mechanism.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto subscribed my name.

WHITLEY E. MARTIN. Witnesses:

F. C. MEINING, G. M. DAVIS. 

